Lindbergh Schools would like to thank all of our residents who voted for Proposition L in the Nov. 3 election. Prop L passed with 65.75 percent of the vote, and will help to secure financial security for the district in the years to come.

“Without Prop L, if our property tax rate ever should exceed $2.75, we would have had to give back approximately $2 million in funding,” said Pat Lanane, assistant superintendent for finance. “Thanks to our voters, Prop L will change that. It waives the rollback so the district will only be required to ask for what we really need. We’ll get to keep the entire amount we ask for to fund student programs, and our tax rate will stay low.”

Prop L prevents the loss of $2 million in future state funding for the district by waiving a decades-old property tax rollback. It will exempt Lindbergh from a state initiative passed in 1982 called Proposition C, which established a one-cent sales tax for educational spending. Prop L will allow the district to keep all the sales tax money sent to the district.

By asking voters to waive the property tax rollback, Lindbergh joins 431 districts in the state of Missouri – and 18 of 23 districts in St. Louis County – that have already done so.

"Prop L will allow more state dollars to stay in the district, at no cost to the taxpayers, and we are extremely thankful to our voters for supporting Lindbergh Schools once again,” Lanane said.

This Saturday’s MoCHIP (Missouri Child Identification and Protection Program) event has been moved from Lindbergh High School to Long Elementary School. The event will be from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

MOCHIP is a comprehensive child identification program for children ages 0-21 that is designed to give Missouri families a measure of protection against the ever increasing problem of missing and abducted children. The program is free to all Missouri families.

This year, 19 Sperreng Middle School fiddlers and their families drove to West Lafayette, Ind., to participate in the annual Feast of the Hunters’ Moon along with teacher Michelle Howard. The feast is a colonial reenactment at Fort Ouiatenon, and students performed wearing 1700’s attire.
The Feast of the Hunters' Moon is a re-creation of the annual fall gathering of the French and Native Americans which took place Fort Ouiatenon, a fur-trading outpost in the mid - 1700s. It is held annually in early autumn on the banks of the Wabash River, four miles southwest of West Lafayette, Ind.

In the past week, Lindbergh Schools has been able to vaccinate more than 1,000 students for H1N1 at open clinics, and we now have a limited amount of injectable and FluMist H1N1 vaccines remaining. At this time, there are not enough doses remaining to hold a clinic, so we will begin vaccinating a small number of students during the school day.

If you are comfortable with your child being vaccinated at his or her school without your presence, please turn in the “Influenza A H1N1 Immunization Consent and History” form previously mailed to you.  Additional copies of this form are available for pick up at the Lindbergh Administration Building, 4900 S. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63126. We will collect consent forms on a first-come, first-serve basis to determine who will receive the vaccine at school.

The LHS Varsity Cheerleaders took time out of their day Oct. 21 to volunteer and make new friends at Friendship Village Retirement Center.  The girls put together table prizes and played games with the senior citizens, and everyone in the room enjoyed themselves.  The cheerleaders plan to continue volunteering at Friendship Village in the future.

Thirty seventh- and eighth-graders from Sperreng Middle School were chosen Oct. 27 to participate in the St. Louis All-Suburban Jazz/Concert Bands. The students were among 567 to audition for the ensemble and are the largest group of Sperreng band students to participate in a single year.

Kathy Standley’s fourth-graders at Crestwood Elementary School will have their artwork featured at the Bascom House in Gray Summit, Mo., Nov. 2-14.

The students drew fall trees for the exhibit at Bascom House, which is located at the Shaw Nature Reserve, an extension of the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Six Sperreng Middle School orchestra students have been selected to play in the All-Suburban Orchestra during a Jan. 9 concert at Rockwood Summit High School. The students include Manny deLeGarreta, Mary Riley, Joel Borcherding, Abbey Jin,stephen Ahrens and Brenna Kizer

Last night our Lindbergh Teachers met to vote on the tentative agreement which was drafted by our two negotiating teams.

I am very pleased to report that our teachers have endorsed a new agreement with their "YES" votes for Lindbergh Schools. Their vote was ratified by a 6-to-1 margin.

The next step to finalize this agreement will be for our Board of Education to vote and approve this document.

This 10-month process was one of the longest negotiation efforts that Lindbergh Schools has ever experienced. But in the long run, I am confident this collaboration of hard work and time spent has allowed us to create a working agreement that will serve our students, staff and community in the very best way possible.

My sincere thanks and appreciation to all who have contributed to this cause.

Rick Francis
Assistant Superintendent for Personnel

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Lindbergh High School student organizations held a safe, fun Halloween event for Lindbergh students and siblings ages 1-10 at the annual Halloween Boonanza Friday, Oct. 23.

The free event featured games, crafts, inflatables, costume contests and, of course, trick-or-treating!

A rousing musical salute will be presented in the third annual Lindbergh Schools BackStoppers Concert Monday, Nov. 9, in the Lindbergh Auditorium, 4900 S. Lindbergh Blvd.

Doors open at 6 p.m., and a pre-concert featuring the Lindbergh High School Strolling Strings begins at 6:20 p.m. The main event starts at 7 p.m., and includes entertainment by the LHS Spirit of St. Louis Marching Band, A Cappella Choir and Flyerettes, as well as the St. Louis City Sheriff’s Department Color Guard, St. Louis County Police Pipes and Drum Corp, Kennerly Kids and Character Choir, Crestwood Kids, soloists Detective Andrea Sanderson, Officer Patrick Nigh and the other Andrews’ sister, and more.

Mrs. Megan Vallis’ second-grade class worked together to make Halloween cards for soliders in Afghanistan. The letters were sent to the platoon of Michael Crain, a 2003 LHS graduate.

The Lindbergh Schools Board of Education recognized 91 Lindbergh High School AP Award winners and nine 2009 IB Diploma recipients at its October meeting.

AP Award Winners
Among the 91 AP Award winners were:

• 38 AP Scholars, who completed three or more AP Exams with grades of 3 or higher on a five-point scale
• 29 AP Scholars with Honor, who earned an average score of 3.25 on all AP Exams taken, and 3 or higher on four or more exams
• 24 AP Scholars with Distinction, who earned an average grade of at least 3.5 on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on five or more exams
• 3 National AP Scholars, who earned an average grade of 4 or higher on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 4 or higher on eight or more exams

Jim Sayler (right), president of Crestwood-Sunset Hills Kiwanis Club, presents a $500 check
to LHS Key Club adviser Elaine Kimker (left) and members Zach Gledhill, Katharine Joiner,
Amanda Torrini and Lachelle Thomas, president.

Crestwood-Sunset Hills Kiwanis Club presented the Lindbergh High School Key Club with generous donation of $500 Thursday, Oct. 22, to help fund the group’s community service efforts throughout the area.

Key Club president Lachelle Thomas and three other club members made a presentation to Kiwanis detailing many of their annual service projects. Some of Key Club’s efforts include giving apples to teachers for back-to-school, babysitting during Sappington parent-teacher conferences, holding a senior citizen prom and trick-or-treating for UNICEF.

Lindbergh graduates Abbie Hainz and Alyssa Avery visited Kennerly Elementary School Oct. 20 to give a special performance for 4th and 5th grade string classes.

The graduates performed in Kennerly’s new “Grand Hallway,” part of the building’s new addition.
Hainz graduated from Webster University in jazz performance and is a professional violinist. She will be touring Europe with the legendary ‘70s touring progressive rock band "Pavlovs Dog" in a few weeks.  Avery is a music major at Webster University, studying jazz performance. 

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra musicians Lorraine Glass-Harris and Chris Carson
answer questions at Long Elementary School Thursday, Oct. 22.

Long Elementary School second-graders learned the difference between piano and forte, pianissimo and fortissimo, and how instruments can take on different volumes and tones during a VIP concert Oct. 22 from two St. Louis Symphony Orchestra violinist and double bass musicians.

The students had fun whispering “piano,” which means soft, and yelling “FORTE!”, or loud, during the assembly, which was part of the symphony’s Adopt-a-School program.

Congratulations to Sperreng Middle School sixth-grader Daniel Conwell, whose artwork will be used by St. Louis Children’s Hospital for its annual holiday greeting card fundraiser this year.

Daniel, a patient at Children’s Hospital, was one of two children whose designs were chosen for the cards. The holiday cards can be ordered by visiting here  or calling 314-286-0972.
 

Are you a Truman Elementary School alum or former teacher? If so, Jane Hake’s fourth-grade class wants to hear from you!

Mrs. Hake’s class is collecting historical documents and oral stories as part of a project leading up to Truman Elementary School’s transition to a middle school in Fall 2011.

Sappington students Alex Forrest, Diya Chatterjee, Skylar Buck and Jaron Heller punted, passed, and kicked their way to victory in NFL national skills competition.

Sappington Elementary School students led their divisions at recent sectional competitions for NFL’s Punt, Pass & Kick program Saturday, Oct. 10, in Webster Groves.

A letter was sent to students’ homes last week providing information about the H1N1 influenza vaccine, which will be administered free of charge to Lindbergh students who provide signed parental consent.

Due to a delay in the release of the H1N1 vaccine, Lindbergh has not yet set dates for its upcoming vaccination clinics. We will notify parents with specific dates for H1N1 vaccine clinics as soon as we receive doses of the vaccination from the St. Louis County Department of Health.

Fire/Medic John Grass gives Kennerly Elementary School Students an up-close look
at an ambulance at the Mehlville Fire Protection District firehouse.

The Kindergarten students at Kennerly Elementary School completed their unit on fire safety with a field trip Friday to the Mehlville Fire Protection District’s station on Mueller Road.

The staff showed students the firefighters’ living quarters, trucks and equipment, and introduced them to Fire/Medic Robin Goede, who was in full gear, with the message that they should not be afraid if they see a fully outfitted firefighter in real life. “In case of a fire, come to us, not away” was the important message from Capt. Kurt Weffelmeyer.

Cynthia Lord, award-winning author of “Rules,” visited with Sperreng Middle School students Oct. 9 to talk about her book and share how she became a writer. Her visit was one of several visits to area schools as part of The Big Read in Clayton.

Lord told students that it took her six years to publish her book “Rules,” a Newberry Award Honor Book and a Mark Twain Book Award Nominee, about a girl whose brother has autism. To be an author, students need to love four things, she said: reading, writing, learning and dreaming.
Lord passed around copies of her book that have been published in Japanese, Korean and Braille.

Sperreng Middle School student Kevin McMurray moves a pawn in his game against
U.S. Women’s Champion Camilla Baginskaite. Photo courtesy of Betsy Dynako.

Sperreng Middle School chess players had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to try their skills against one of the greatest female chess players in the country on Friday, Oct. 9.

The students took turns playing against Camilla Baginskaite and Battsetseg Tsagaan, two players from the U.S. Women’s National Chess Championship who were in town for the tournament at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. During the “simuls” exhibition, all 12 students played individual games simultaneously.

The Parents As Teachers annual Kids Kars and Kopters event took place Saturday, Oct. 10 and included a St. Louis County Helicopter, UPS truck, Fire Truck, Ambulance, Swat Truck, Mail Truck and more! Thank you to everyone who helped to make this fun-filled morning a huge success.

Lindbergh Schools’ Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to approve two proposals that will unify the schools, promote spirit, and create an even stronger sense of community in the years to come.

The first item approved extends the Lindbergh Flyers identity to elementary schools and Lindbergh Early Childhood Education, connecting students of all ages and setting the stage for years of increased school spirit. The Flyers arch logo including Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis airplane is already well-known and has been used for years at Lindbergh High School and Sperreng Middle School.

You are invited to join the LHS Cheerleaders at the first annual “Just Stand Up” Cheer Classic at University of Missouri – St. Louis, for a day of cheerleading, charity and community support.

LHS social studies teacher Brad Durnell at the changing of the guard at Changdeok
Royal Palace in Korea.

What did you do on your summer vacation? This summer, Lindbergh High School social studies teacher Brad Durnell was selected to travel to Korea as part of a fully funded trip sponsored by the Korean Foundation.

During his trip, Durnell visited a Korean High School, took a private tour of the Demilitarized Zone, and attended seminars at Yonsei University.

Some Lindbergh Schools have already seen cases of Type A influenza this year, and it is natural as a parent to have questions about how this may affect the health of your child. (Click here for a printable PDF of flu information for parents.)

We are taking preventive steps at all of our Lindbergh Schools to prevent the spread of flu from child to child. In addition, Deborah Artman, district lead nurse/safety coordinator, is working closely with the Saint Louis County Department of Health to monitor flu conditions and absences.

The LHS Business Department recently teamed up with Eagle Bank to share the importance of Financial institutions and how they impact an individual’s financial management. Employees from Eagle Bank visited all 10 Personal Financial Management sections during the week of Sept. 21. They gave a Power Point presentation, facilitated class discussions, and allowed time for students to ask questions.